Jeff Bridges Abides a Book Deal; In Defense of Not Finishing Novels

Today in publishing and literature: The Academy Award-winning actor is going to be offering his own contribution to The Big Lebowski literary canon, a bull market for Katy Perry's memoir, and why you shouldn't feel guilty about putting a novel down unfinished.

The Dude Gets a Book Deal Between I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski: Life, The Big Lebowski, and What Have You and The Abide Guide: Living Like Lebowski, the world is not exactly short on quasi-academic books explaining why The Big Lebowski is funny. What we are short on is quasi-academic books explaining why The Big Lebowski is funny written by the guy who played the Dude himself. That's going to change in November, when Blue Rider Press publishesThe Dude and the Zenmaster, in which Bridges will delve into "the meaning of life, laughter, the movies and trying to do good in a difficult world," and also presumably share a few tips for mixing White Russians. [Page Views]

The Dark Tower Lives When Universal balked at Imagine Entertainment's plan to turn Stephen King's Dark Tower novels into three very expensive feature films and limited-run TV specials last summer, producer Brian Grazer vowed to find the project a new home. That seemed like it was going to be a tough sell, since even a scaled-back adaptation of King's vaguely Western, vaguely post-apocalyptic books would be hugely expensive, but Deadline is reporting Grazer is close to a deal to resurrect the project at Warner Bros. This is terrific news for fans of King's vaguely Western, vaguely post-apocalyptic heptalogy, though it's unclear just how sprawling the rebooted Dark Tower will be. Co-producer Ron Howard is apparently going to get "the chance to direct at least the first feature," but the filmmakers might have to find someone new to play wandering gunslinger hero Roland Deschain, since Javier Bardem's involvement will now "depend upon his availability." [Deadline]

Defending Publishers Author's Guild president (and bestselling author) Scott Turow has sent out a letter explaining all the reasons publishers should reconsider agreeing to a rumored settlement with Justice Department in order to avoid a possible lawsuit for colluding to fix the price of e-books. It's tough to get behind any argument that will keep the price of books high, but Turowargument that publishers either had to "seize the agency model or watch Amazon’s discounting destroy their physical distribution chain" is the most hypothetically sound argument in favor of pricey e-books we've heard so far. [The Author's Guild]

Tell-all Scuttlebutt The chatter in the British tabloids is that three unnamed publishers are trying to give Katy Perry a book deal, and that the offers are already "already exceeding £2million." Will it happen? Who knows. But anyone worried about the strength of the celebrity memoir market has to be encouraged that a hypothetical book from Katy Perry is still worth seven-figures. [The Sun]

Reading the Whole Thing As we've gotten older, we've started putting more and more books down without ever quite finishing them. Which is perfectly fine with Man Booker Prize nominee Tim Parks, who offers a lengthy defense of not reading every last page of a novel. "What matters is the conundrum of the plot, the forces put in play and the tensions between them," Parks explains The Italians have a nice word here. They call plot trama, a word whose primary meaning is weft, woof or weave." So once you have the weave, the end isn't particularly important. We like that. [The New York Review of Books]

Everyone has someone on their holiday shopping list who’s impossible to buy for. For the second year in a row, we asked Atlantic readers to describe their someone, and brainstormed a few perfect gift ideas for them.